explanation. The monuments are all barrows, or circles defigned for the reception of barrows. All have a reference to the temple, as the barrows near Stonehenge equally have to it. The circles are three in number, and form one line, which runs by the king-ftone of the temple, and is the bafe of the triangle. Two barrows form one of the fides, while the third fide is left defined only by the extreme points of the others. The circles are the graves of fome principal perfons, no doubt; and the barrows are the burying-places of their inferiours. These have been thrown into the form of a triangle we suppose, that the upper angle might anfwer to the temple, the base should run near to the temple and along the leading-ftone of it, and all fhould mark the holy inclofure around it. Many fantastical reasons may at any time be alledged, for preferring one mathematical figure to another. Where fancy alone is confulted, fuggeftions are numberlefs. And that even the form of a triangle, however planned and executed at firft, was not finally adhered to; is plain from a third, barrow in the line of barrows, added to the fouthern circle of the bafe, and fo breaking in upon the triangular arrangement. Where fancy prefides, there is little fixednefs.

We shall notice only one particular more, concerning these remains. In a barrow within one of the circles Major Rooke • found an urn of coarse thin clay, full of burnt bones; and upon them lay a very fingular druidical remain, in appearance of • mountain pitch, very hard and light - confidering the figure, which is that of a heart, and the perforation at top • evidently made with a tool; we cannot but efteem it a British amulet. This is a relick truly fingular. We believe it to be an unique. And we therefore point it out to the curiosity of our readers.

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We thus dismiss an effay, which we confider as too poor and petty for the name of the author; as exhibiting few marks of learning, and ftill fewer of fagacity.

IV. An Account of fome Stone Coffins, and Skeletons, found on "making fome Alterations and Repairs in Cambridge Cafile. By the Rev. Robert Mafters,' &c.

In Auguft 1785, workmen were employed in rendering Cambridge Castle more commodious and healthful; and thefe, in levelling' fome ramparts on the fouth fide thereof,' discovered two coffins of stone, under the wall of the old ftone staircase, < now unfortunately demolished to make way for a modern one of brick.' Two fculls were alfo found under the old ftone ftairs (near which, as I obferved before, the coffins were ' found)

found) leading to the apartments over the gateway.' And two skeletons were likewise found that fummer, in removing fome part of the ramparts on the north fide. The present

goal here,' fays Mr. Mafters, was only the gateway to the old caftle (as its ftructure evinces, which ftood at fome distance from it, as the small remains of it, ftill visible behind the Bridewell, plainly fhew.' The gateways of all our old castles, and of all our old manour-houses, were regularly the prifons of them, we believe. The gateway at Westminster still continues fo; and we know of one manour-house, where tra dition fixes a prifon over the front-gate. But, as Mr. Masters additionally obferves, I cannot help thinking, the room over the gateway was made ufe of as a chapel to the caftle; and the ground on the east, north, and fouth, confecrated for a place of burial.' There was always, we believe, a room either immediately over the gateway, or close upon one side of it, fet apart as a chapel for the prisoners; because, in the manourhoufe to which we have alluded before, we remember the chamber directly over the gateway, to have been denominated the jailor's chapel by tradition. And as Mr. Masters may in vain perhaps refer the fubject to the ingenious and truly respectable Mr. King, who has made fuch curious and acute inquiries into the ftructure and allotment of apartments, in fuch kind ' of fabrics;' but who has taken no notice of this circumftance in our ancient caftles; we have ventured to fupply the defect in his inquiries, and to gratify the curiofity of Mr. Masters, by thefe few fuggeftions.

In one of the coffins, under the head of the skeleton, and in a cavity cut into the ftone there, was found a plate, with an infcription' upon it; by which both the name of the perfon, and time of burial, will, I make no doubt, be afcertained;" but which appears plainly to us to be merely a series of unmeaning fcrolls, a kind of cabaliftic charm, fuch as used (we believe) to be very lately put into bags of Smyrna cotton, when they were made up for exportation; and fuch as feem to have been peculiarly common to the human mind, against the terrors of the grave.

V. A Second Letter from Mr. Mafters-on the Stone Coffins found in repairing Cambridge Castle.'

This relates the difcovery of three more coffins of ftone. Two of these were ftill nearer to the staircase of the gateway. The covering only of the third was laid open. But a part of this actually went under the old wall of the ftaircafe.' And the circumftance ferves to explain, what was unexplained before. ENG. REV. VOL. XIV. OCT, 1789.

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The bodies not only feem,' but appear, to have been depofited there, before that building was erected; and, what is more, the whole ground appears to have then been the cemetery of the caftle, and to have had the gateway erected upon a part of it; the wall of the ftaircafe running directly across one of the coffins. So little attentive were the builders, to the remains of the dead depofited in the ground! Yet the interred were no common dead. There was by the fide of one of the skeletons, a ftick of three quarters of an inch in diameter.' And this, now mere touchwood (of which I have a piece about half a yard long) was probably an enfign of office, and might denote ⚫ his being conftable or keeper of the caftle.'

ART. III. Accounts and Extracts of the Manufcripts in the Library of the King of France. Published under the Infpection of a Committee of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 2 vols. 12s. boards. London, 1789.

Faulder.

THE prefent work is indebted for its origin to the munificence of the French king, who, in the year 1785, instituted an establishment for the purpofe of examining the vast collection of manufcripts in the royal library. His defign in this inftitution was, to revive the ftudy of the learned languages and hiftoric records; to discover to France the literary treasure fhe poffeffes; to point out to her the use of them; and to make all Europe participate of whatever, in that great and celebrated repofitory of valuable productions, can contribute to the advancement of learning. For carrying this liberal defign into execution, it was ordained, by the royal authority, that for the future eight academicians fhould employ themselves to make public, by exact accounts and judicious extracts, the manufcripts of the king's library; to tranflate, and even to publish in their original languages, the pieces they should think worthy to be printed at large; that three of the academicians fhould examine the Oriental, two the Greek and Latin, and the other three the manufcripts which concern the hiftory of France, and in general the antiquities of the middle age; and that each of them should receive an annual appointment for this particular bufinefs. The king's intention alfo was, that the employment on these manuscripts fhould not be exclufively confined to the eight who were to have an appointment for their trouble, but that all the other academicians fhould confider themselves as invited to affift in the work, and be admitted to the committee, to lay before them the refult of their researches.

In order to afford this inftitution all the extent and utility it is capable of, his majefty was defirous that the execution fhould not be confined to the Academy of Belles Lettres, nor to the manuscripts in his library alone; but that the learned, both of the capital and provinces, fhould be invited to make known likewife the manufcripts preferved in the public and private repofitories to which they have accefs, and to tranfmit the fruits of their researches, under cover of the minifter, to the perpetual secretary of the academy, who is directed to report the same to the committee, by whom they may be published.

It is impoffible to mention the history of such an institution without expreffing a wifh that the prefent work may excite an emulation in thofe, under whofe province it more immediately falls, to imitate fo excellent an example. Immenfe ftores of information are yet locked up in various libraries of Europe; and few countries, perhaps, can boast of more valuable repofitories of this kind than our own. While we eagerly adopt the most frivolous fashions of the French nation, we have too long neglected to follow them in their nobler and more useful institutions. The Academy of Belles Lettres, fo glorious to the memory of Lewis the Fourteenth, by whom it was established, has now fubfifted upwards of a century, without having ever excited amongst us fo much as the least attempt at emulation. Let us not prove equally indifferent about imitating this fecond example of improvement, which, for its liberality and aufpicious influence on literature, merits the highest commendation.

We are not to suppose that all the manuscripts in the French king's library are alike worthy of notice, or can afford mateterials equally curious and interefting; but perhaps there are none of them which do not, in fome refpects, merit the attention of the learned; and even if there fhould be found a large number, from which nothing ufeful can be extracted, it will ftill be rendering a confiderable service to point out such as are useless, and thereby to spare other inquirers many laborious and fruitless researches. Neither muft we imagine that the academicians, employed in this work, have begun their extracts from the most important manufcripts. They could not make a felection from works, the greater part of which was abfolutely unknown to them. They could have no other lights than the titles, and these are too often deceitful guides. It is therefore, in fome measure, chance alone which has determined the materials of the prefent collection; and all that can be required from the compilers is, that they proportion the extent of the selection to the importance of the work; and that they do not infert, as far as can be avoided, any article but fuch as is ufeful of

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The printing a felection from the manuscripts in the Oriental languages, makes the use of Oriental characters neceffary, in a variety of inftances; the Baron de Breteuil, convinced of this, and being informed that there were many forts of these different characters in the royal printing-house, where they had been neglected for near a century, directed a search to be made for them, and engaged M. de Guignes to examine and put them in order. This academician has not confined his plan strictly to the intentions of the minifter, but availed himself of every circumftance that could increase the utility of his labours; of which he has given a large hiftorical effay, abounding with information on the fubject, in the beginning of the work.

The first manufcript of which an account is given by M. de Guignes, is entitled The golden Meadows, and the Mines of precious Stones; an Univerfal Hiftory, by Aboul-Haffan-Aly, fon of Al-Khair, fon of Aly, fon of Abderrahman, fon of Abdallah, fon of Mafoud-El-Hadheli, furnamed Mafoudi; a writer of the twelfth century.' It is contained in Arabian manuscripts, No. 598, in quarto, of 274 pages; No. 599, in quarto, of 394 pages; and No. 599, A, in folio, of 984 pages: all three on Oriental paper. This work, we are told, is much efteemed in the Eaft, whether on account of its antiquity, the author having lived in an age when the Arabians ftill continued to cultivate many sciences; or on account of the variety of the objects, or the extent of the inquiries contained in it. It is doubtless this which determined Mafoudi to give it the fingular title which it bears; and befides, it is the custom of the Orientals to give fuch titles to their works. We think it unneceffary to specify the particular condition of those several manuscripts. It is fufficient to fay that, as hiftorical works, they are obfcure, defultory and imperfect, and mixed with many Oriental fables, unworthy of notice.

The next manufcript of which we meet with an account, by M. de Brequigny, is The Journal of Burcard,' mafter of the ceremonies to the pope's chapel, from Sixtus IV. to Julius II. Burchard held many employments at the court of Rome, and was, towards the end of his life, bishop of Horta. He gives a particular detail of what paffed from the death of Sixtus IV. to the election of his fucceffor. We fhall felect, for the gratification of our readers, fome extracts from this part of the work:

As foon as the pope was dead, Burcard, as mafter of the ceremonies, was, with his colleagues, called to affift at the funeral. He then paints the extreme confufion that reigned in the palace immediately after he expired. His body having been exposed on a table, they were long before they were able to obtain the neceffary things